SCNorth
SCNorth is a regional sports network serving Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Iowa, Upper Michigan along the Wisconsin border & the eastern parts of North Dakota & South Dakota. SCNorth has 3 separate feeds: the "metro" feed which is broadcast to the Twin Cities & surrounding areas; the "outstate" feed which is seen in the rest of Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Iowa, extreme western Wisconsin & DBS subscribers & the "Wisconsin" feed which serves that state, excepting the western counties within the Twin Cities DMA. SCNorth is an O&O affiliate of SportsChannel. The SCWisconsin network is run from both a studio/office facility in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin & out of a studio/office hub based in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota History SCNorth started as a cable project by WTC-TV called WTC II. Originally intended as a general programming complement to the over-the-air WTC-TV, it gradually became more sports oriented & relaunched in 1989 as the Midwest Sports Network. MSN's main draws in it's early days were the Minnesota Twins & the Minnesota North Stars. It was also affiliated with SportsChannel & filled out it's broadcasting day with a mix of SC programs & tickers & paid programming. MSN was largely considered a "luxury" channel until the early 1990's & did not even have full metro coverage until Continental Cablevision added it to St. Paul's extended basic cable lineup in 1994. In 1995, MSN expanded it's pro sports lineup by landing a cable broadcast deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The following year, WMFL Corporation acquired the Wisconsin SportsChannel (a gametime-only network broadcasting Milwaukee Brewers & Bucks games) from Milwaukee's Time Warner Cable franchise & folded it into MSN, giving the network a broader reach in the Midwest, the Brewers & Bucks deals & a stable of outstanding local outdoors shows. The autumn of 2000 marked the return of NHL hockey to Minnesota with the debut of the Wild franchise & MSN broadcasted much of the inaugural season. This also marked the 1st time that SC-branded graphics were used on a locally produced broadcast & the announcers made frequent use of the phrase "...live on MSN, SportsChannel style". The name change to SCNorth was made official in April 2001 to coincide with the start of the new Twins season & the opening of the Brewers' Miller Park & was called out on the air, on outdoor billboards & even bus ads. However, the change was not all good: the network lost it's local focus, instead airing national SC programs like SportsCenter & Out the Borders. In April of 2006, still lacking a local news show (SCNorth Sports Report originated from SC's New York City, NY studios), SCNorth launched SCNorth LIVE, a 1st-of-it's-kind show that served as part local sports news show, part pre- & post-game bumper. SCNorth LIVE is usually broadcast LIVE & on location from sporting events, though occasionally it originates from SCNorth's new Minneapolis studio. The Wisconsin version, since spun off of SCNorth to create SCWisconsin, currently airs Brewers & Bucks events, pregame, postgame & fan shows, along with some Minnesota Wild events & WIAA competitions. A reduced schedule of Wild hockey airs within Wisconsin. For the 2007 baseball season, SCNorth sub-licensed 15 Brewers games to air on Milwaukee's WMIL (Ch. 6), producing the broadcasts, while WMIL-TV will sell ads on those telecasts Teams MSN & SCNorth have been the cable TV home to several professional & college teams MLB *Minnesota Twins (1989-present) *Milwaukee Brewers (1996-present, exclusive to the network since the 2005 season, now on SCWisconsin only) NBA *Minnesota Timberwolves (1995-present) *Milwaukee Bucks (1996-present, exclusive to the network starting with the 2007–08 season, now on SCWisconsin only) NHL *Minnesota North Stars (1989–1993) *Minnesota Wild (2000-present) WNBA *Minnesota Lynx (1999-present) NLL *Minnesota Swarm (2004-present) NCAA Division I athletics *Minnesota Golden Gophers *Wisconsin Badgers *WCHA *University of Minnesota Golden Gophers *University of Wisconsin Badgers *Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs *UND Fighting Sioux *Minnesota State University Mavericks *St Cloud State University Huskies Branding For most shows & nationally-televised sports broadcasts, a small logo bug appears in the top right corner of the screen which reads SC'North; the '''''SC in the logo has a light blue color to it. However, the logo changes whenever local sports teams are shown on SCNorth. For Twins baseball games & Twins LIVE, the logo reads SC'Twins (with the '''''SC shown in red). During Wild hockey games & Wild LIVE, the SC is also colored red, with the logo displaying SC'Wild. And for Timberwolves basketball games (as well as Timberwolves LIVE), the logo will read SC'Wolves'' with the ''SC shown in green. For Swarm lacrosse games (as well as Swarm LIVE), the logo will read SC'Swarm with the '''''SC logo in a yellow-blue color. For Lynx WNBA games (& Lynx LIVE), the logo reads as SC'Lynx with the '''''SC logo in a blue-green color See also *SportsChannel External Links